"C" Class Submarine (1906)

The Royal Navy's thirty-eight "C" Class Submarines entered service between 1907 and 1910.

They were similar to the preceding class and were suited only to local defence by virtue of their modest endurance.

At the start of the war, there were 37 in commission.^[1]

Overview of 38 vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Completed	Fate
C 1	Vickers		10 Jul, 1906		Sold Oct, 1920
C 2	Vickers		10 Jul, 1906		Sold Oct, 1920
C 3	Vickers		3 Oct, 1906		Expended 23 Apr, 1918
C 4	Vickers		18 Oct, 1906		Sold Apr, 1922
C 5	Vickers		20 Aug, 1906		Sold Oct, 1919
C 6	Vickers		20 Aug, 1906		Sold Nov, 1919
C 7	Vickers		15 Feb, 1907		Sold Dec, 1919
C 8	Vickers		15 Feb, 1907		Sold Oct, 1920
C 9	Vickers		3 Apr, 1907		Sold Jul, 1922
C 10	Vickers		15 Apr, 1907		Sold Jul, 1922
C 11	Vickers		27 May, 1907		Rammed 14 Jul, 1909
C 12	Vickers		9 Sep, 1907		Sold Feb, 1920
C 13	Vickers		9 Nov, 1907		Sold Feb, 1920
C 14	Vickers		7 Dec, 1907		Sold Dec, 1921
C 15	Vickers		21 Jan, 1908		Sold Feb, 1922
C 16	Vickers		19 Mar, 1908		Sold Aug, 1922
C 21	Vickers		26 Sep, 1908		Sold Dec, 1921
C 22	Vickers		10 Oct, 1908		Sold Feb, 1920
C 23	Vickers		26 Nov, 1908		Sold Dec, 1921
C 24	Vickers		26 Nov, 1908		Sold May, 1921
C 25	Vickers		10 Mar, 1909		Sold Dec, 1921
C 26	Vickers		20 Mar, 1909		Scuttled 4 Apr, 1918
C 27	Vickers		22 Apr, 1909		Scuttled 4 Apr, 1918
C 28	Vickers		22 Apr, 1909		Sold Aug, 1921
C 29	Vickers		19 Jun, 1909		Mined 29 Aug, 1915
C 30	Vickers		19 Jul, 1909		Sold Aug, 1921
C 31	Vickers		2 Sep, 1909		Lost 4 Jan, 1915
C 32	Vickers		29 Sep, 1909		Stranded 24 Oct, 1917
C 35	Vickers		2 Nov, 1909		Scuttled 4 Apr, 1918
C 36	Vickers		30 Nov, 1909		Sold Jun, 1919
C 37	Vickers		1 Jan, 1910		Sold Jun, 1919
C 38	Vickers		10 Feb, 1910		Sold Jun, 1919
C 17	Chatham Royal Dockyard		13 Aug, 1908		Sold Nov, 1919
C 18	Chatham Royal Dockyard		10 Oct, 1908		Sold May, 1921
C 19	Chatham Royal Dockyard		20 Mar, 1909		Sold Feb, 1920
C 20	Chatham Royal Dockyard		27 Nov, 1909		Sold May, 1921
C 33	Chatham Royal Dockyard		10 May, 1910		Lost 4 Aug, 1915
C 34	Chatham Royal Dockyard		8 Jun, 1910		Torpedoed 21 Jul, 1917

After the war, the "B" and "C" class submarines were described as "very good in their day", but with too small a radius to be able to truly operate on enemy coasts.^[2]

Torpedoes

two 18-in tubes forward, four torpedoes

Periscopes

C 1 through C 16 were the first British boats to have two hand-raised periscopes of 12-13 foot length, rather than just a single one. This was adopted due to the narrow 60 degree field of view. Apparently, it was possible to operate the two at the same time to double the situational awareness on board. One was in the conning tower and the second mounted abaft.^[3]

C 21 through C 38, on the other hand, had just a single stereoscopic periscope of 21 foot length in the conning tower.^[3]